Databricks co-founder and SVP of Field Engineering Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji shared tips for startups to win large enterprise customers at TechCrunch Disrupt, emphasizing that people and processes matter more than technology alone, and suggesting startups leverage partnerships with big tech firms like Microsoft for credibility and sales support.
S&P Global's Mark Habib said at a London roundtable that US hyperscalers may have substantial undisclosed AI-related debt from implicit guarantees for data center construction or smaller AI firms, with no immediate rating pressure unless spending proves unsustainable. S&P estimates the six largest US hyperscalers will spend over $7 trillion on AI-related capex from 2025 to 2030.
On October 12, Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Tab S12 series AI tablets, upgrading display, performance, and AI productivity on the basis of a large screen and ultra-slim design. The devices combine Galaxy AI with multitasking capabilities and come with a bundled S Pen that requires no charging or pairing, supporting note assistant, Bixby, AI-powered photo problem-solving, and an English speaking tutor.
Panay confirmed the Alexa Tablet series as Amazon's first hardware branded with Alexa, and hinted at more Alexa-branded devices and a new design language, without revealing details.
Tab officially exited stealth with a $300 million valuation on October 6, backed by SV Angel, Valar Ventures and American Spirit. Co-founder Ammar Amdani described the personal AI assistant, which handles daily tasks via iMessage or WhatsApp, and discussed competition and user trust in the consumer AI space.
Asta has open-sourced AstaBrief 8B, a model that converts research questions and retrieved literature excerpts into cited reports, along with its training data. It is now available as Fast mode in Asta's Generate a report feature, reducing average report generation time from about 178.5 seconds to 51.1 seconds.
Databricks announced on September 24 that it has acquired early-stage spreadsheet startup Row Zero. The deal amount was not disclosed. Row Zero was founded by former AWS and Tableau engineers and raised $10 million in May 2025. Databricks plans to combine it with its self-developed AI agent Genie, allowing users to securely query and analyze cloud data in spreadsheet form.
At an AI tablet media briefing, Lenovo executives Zhang Hua, Chen Ke, Li Weichang and Jia Zhaohui outlined the company's AI tablet strategy, describing AI tablets as natural vessels for AI. They said Lenovo will adhere to user-driven innovation and a monthly update mechanism, focus on college students, gaming and content creation scenarios, and announced a content creation solution in October 2026 and a multi-screen switching product in the fourth quarter of 2026.
In a recent interview, Databricks CRO Ron Gabrisko reviewed the company's growth from under $1 million to over $7 billion in ARR, attributing it to bets on cloud, open source, and a unified data and AI platform. He said the enterprise AI moat lies in data context, governance, choice, and cost, and disclosed AI-related revenue of about $1.7 billion.